Vice President Mike Pence reassured Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) attendees on Thursday that President Trump and his administration are prepared for the threat of the coronavirus.
“While the risk to the American public remains low, as the president said yesterday, we’re ready. We’re ready for anything,” Pence asserted at the beginning of his remarks.
Pence spoke to CPAC a day after the president asked him to lead the government response to the coronavirus.
He praised the president’s unprecedented action to declare a public health emergency when the coronavirus emerged and set up a travel ban on foreign nationals from China as well as setting up a quarantine for Americans returning from China.
Pence said that Trump’s coronavirus task force had met every single day to monitor the status of the virus and to discuss preparations.
He also said that only 15 cases of the disease had been detected in the United States, with only one new case in the past two weeks and only one American hospitalized.
Pence alluded to Democrat criticism of the president’s response to the coronavirus, reminding them that it was a time to work across party lines.
“As the president also said, it’s important to remember that we’re all in this together,” he stated. “This is not the time for partisanship; the American people expect us to work together.”
Pence reassured the audience that the president would use the full resources of the government to fight the virus.
“This president will always put the health and safety of America first,” he said as the audience cheered.